Marlene

The core of my artistic work lies in representational painting, with the human figure as the central theme of my **hand-painted portraits**. Rolf Mallat’s creations combine visual motifs from print, TV, and online media. During the painting process, new visual contexts emerge, placing the depicted subjects into unexpected and thought-provoking situations. As an artist, I see my role as one of disrupting perceptions of reality, raising questions, and relativizing accepted truths. My paintings do not provide definitive answers; instead, the overlays and juxtapositions of different visual sequences create contradictory, sometimes Dadaist scenarios. "Nothing is as it seems, but every reality holds many truths." When I extract motifs from the overwhelming flood of contemporary images and transform them into a painting, this process becomes one of deceleration, focus, and revaluation. Photography, despite certain reservations, continues to convey an aura of authenticity. To challenge reality, I must, when necessary, work with a high degree of realism—otherwise, it doesn’t succeed. The person in the photograph is "real," and I capitalize on this initial trust. My artistic endeavor lies in unsettling the viewer’s trust, provoking questions, and prompting a deeper examination of perceived realities.